Detractors
of Apple's Mac computers often point to the machines' relatively high
price of entry and small market share when looking at the overall PC
market (Microsoft still dominates thanks to a plethora of
Windows-based machines). However, when compared to other PC
manufacturers, Apple
is doing quite well (at least in the United States).

The
latest
statistics from IDC show that Apple has now moved into third
place for PC shipments in the U.S. Apple's shipments grew a whopping
24 percent for Q3, which gave Apple 10.6 percent of the market.
Dell's shipments actually dropped 4.9 percent giving it a 23.1
percent share of the market, while HP's shipments increased 2.7
percent to give it 24.3 percent of the market and first place
overall.

"Apple's
influence on the PC market continues to grow, particularly in the
U.S., as the company's iPad has had some negative impact on the
mini-notebook market. But, the halo effect of the device also helped
propel Mac sales and moved the company into the number three position
in the U.S. market," said Bob O'Donnell, IDC's vice president
for Clients and Displays.

When
it comes to global sales, Apple doesn't even register in the top six.
For Q3, the top global players were HP followed by Acer, Dell,
Lenovo, ASUS and Toshiba.

"Despite
a sluggish start, the quarter ended with a good rally in September
which could be a good prelude for what is ahead," said IDC
research analyst Jay Chou. "Lower PC component costs, budding
excitement around new media-centric form factors and continued
business buying should still make for a competitive holiday season.”

The
good news on the Apple front comes on the same day that shares of the
stock closed
above $300 for the first time in the company's history.

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I'm with you on the Powerbook, my G4 from 2004 is still going strong!!!

quote: I would rather a nice large case, clear window, filled with LED's and cathodes, and a nice UV reactive water cooling system. - Looks helluva' lot better than another standardish looking box wrapped in aluminum foil in my opinion

lol then the Mac is not for you, are you being serious? The only bit of the style disaster you omitted was a sound-reactive lighting system...although I might enjoy it on a technical level, it would mark me out as being a bit of a geek. Whilst I used to build my own PC's when I was in uni, I now just use a Macbook Pro and iPad pretty much. I'd like to say how ashamed I am to have bought into Apple, but in reality, life is simpler. Playing with the OS and tweaking it to run faster and play games is a far lower priority to me now than it used to be.

The only cases 'wrapped in aluminium foil' or spray painted silver are pc cases trying to look like Macs....in my experience